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International Journal Of Engineering And Computer Science ISSN:2319-7242
Volume – 5 Issue -02 February, 2016 Page No. 15677-15680

Reducing Call Drops Due to Cell Failure

Prashant Shrivastava, Dr.(Mrs) Poonam Sinha
BUIT ,Bhopal (goodprashant@gmail.com)
BUIT ,Bhopal (poonamuit@yahoo.com)

Abstract : The dropped-call rate (DCR) is the fraction of the telephone calls which, due to technical reasons, were cut off before
the speaking parties had finished their conversational tone and before one of them had hung up (dropped calls) This fraction is
usually measured as a percentage of all .CDR is defined as the ratio of abnormal disconnect of calls to total calls established. The
performance of a TSP relating to call drop is assessed through this parameter. The benchmark set by TRAI for CDR is <2%.Since
the CDR for the service area as a whole does not reveal the extent of number of areas or localities where the CDR is poor, the
Authority is monitoring another parameter called “Worst affected cells” in which the call drop rate exceeds 3% during cell busy
hour, averaged over a month for a service area ” provides a much more localised view of the network. In this paper we have
suggested a forced handoff method (Directed Retry)for cells going down due to weak transmission plan or other reason to
reduce call drops .

Key words : Call drop . GSM ,Directed Retry , Handoff.

Introduction: In telecommunications, the dropped-call rate
(DCR) is the fraction of the telephone calls which, due to
technical reasons, were cut off before the speaking parties had
finished their conversational tone and before one of them had
hung up (dropped calls) This fraction is usually measured as a
percentage of all calls A call attempt invokes a call setup
procedure, which, if successful, results in a connected call. A
connected call may be terminated (disconnected) due to a
technical reason before the parties making the call would wish
to do so (in ordinary phone calls this would mean before either
of the parties has hung up). Such calls are classified as dropped
calls. In many practical cases this definition needs to be further
expanded with a number of detailed specifications describing
which calls exactly are counted as dropped, at what stage of the
call setup procedure a call is counted as connected, etc. In
modern telecommunication systems, such as cellular (mobile)
networks, the call setup procedure may be very complex and
the point at which a call is considered successfully connected
may be defined in a number of ways, thus influencing the way
the dropped-call rate is calculated.[10]
What Causes Call Drops?
The blame tilts more towards the operators here though they
rebut the claims. The prime reasons for dropped calls are:
Inadequate coverage which can be due to multiple reasons [3]
 Lack of tower infrastructure
 Improper network planning
 Non-optimization of network
1. Overloaded cell towers – number of subscribers
are growing day by day and most of them are on smartphones.
The network capacity is simply not being ramped up at the
same pace resulting in overloaded networks
2. Cityscape changes - there have been instances where a
new multistoried building comes up & the adjacent building’s
subscribers lose cell reception. Such instances
are very common with rapidly changing cityscapes and
call for routine network data analysis from service providers
3.Switching between towers – this situation occurs when a
person is traveling or moving around while talking. If a call
handover takes place from one BTS to another, especially in
case of overloaded networks, there are chances of dropped
calls.
4. Technical Failures – this is beyond anyone’s control
and operators generally monitor downtimes through
well-equipped network operation centres , can be due
to transmission path or power outages .
Cellular Network
A Mobile network [4]can be defined as the group of multiple
nodes like MS, BTS/Node B, BSC/RNC, MSS, HLR, etc.
These nodes architecture are vendor dependent but in general it
consist Specific hardware & software. Software is application
specific & vendor proprietary. Nokia Siemens Network,
Ericsson, Huawei are major manufacturer of telecom
equipment & they implement the Mobile network architecture
for Mobile Network Operator Word wide.
A mobile network can be classified in to mainly three parts of
RAN, SCN, and OSS domain. BSS is responsible for providing
the mobile connection at air interface while SCN is responsible
for providing the control over BSS along with mobility
management, Charging etc. OSS is responsible for providing
the maintenance of the entire node connected in Mobile
Network.
Cell Site or BTS (BS)
The power of the radio signals transmitted by the BS decay as
the signals travel away from it. A minimum amount of signal
strength (let us say, x dB) is needed in order to be detected by

Prashant Shrivastava, IJECS Volume 05 Issue 2 February 2016 Page No.15677-15680 Page 15677
 DOI: 10.18535/ijecs/v5i2.5
the MS or mobile sets which may the hand-held personal units
or those installed in the vehicles. The region over which the
signal strength lies above this threshold value x dB is known as
the coverage area of a BS , which gives this actual radio
coverage, is called the foot print of a cell (in reality, it is
amorphous).
Networking technology that breaks geographic area into cells
shaped like honey comb.
Handover
Handover basically means changing the point of connection
while communicating. Whenever Mobile Station is connected
to 1 Base Station and there is a need to change to another Base
Station, it is known as HANDOVER
Figure 1. Handover request
There are numerous methods for performing handoff. From the
decision process point of view, one can find at least three
different kinds of handoff decisions.
 Network-Controlled Handoff
 Mobile-Assisted Handoff
 Mobile-Controlled Handoff
Network-Controlled Handoff
• In a network-controlled handoff protocol, the network
makes a handoff decision based on the measurements
of the MSs at a number of BSs.
• In general, the handoff process takes 100–200 ms.
• Network-controlled handoff is used in first-generation
analog systems such as AMPS (Advanced Mobile
Phone System), TACS(Total Access Communication
System), and NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone).
Mobile-Assisted Handoff
• In a mobile-assisted handoff process, the MS makes
measurements and the network makes the decision.
• In the circuit-switched GSM (global system mobile),
the BS controller (BSC) is in charge of the radio
interface management. This mainly means allocation
and release of radio channels and handoff
management.
• The handoff time between handoff decision and
execution in a circuit-switched GSM is
approximately 1 second.
Mobile-Controlled Handoff
• In mobile-controlled handoff, each MS is completely
in control of the handoff process.
• This type of handoff has a short reaction time (in the
order of 0.1 second).
• MS measures the signal strengths from surrounding
BSs and interference levels on all channels.
• A handoff can be initiated if the signal strength of the
Prashant Shrivastava, IJECS Volume 05 Issue 2 February 2016 Page No.15677-15680
serving BS is lower than that of another BS by a
certain threshold.
TYPES OF HANDOVER
• Hard Handover
• Soft Handover
• Horizontal Handover
• Vertical Handover
Figure 2. Handover scenario
INTER-CELL AND INTRA-CELL HANDOVER
The inter-cell handover switches a call in progress from
one cell to another cell, and the intra-cell handover
switches a call in progress from one physical channel of a
cell to another physical channel of the same cell.
Hard Handover
• Old connection is broken before a new
connection is activated.
Soft Handover
• The call is first connected to the new base station
BS2 and then it is dropped by the previous base
station BS1.
HANDOFF FAILURES
• Because frequencies cannot be reused in adjacent
cells, when a user moves from one cell to
another, a new frequency must be allocated for
the call.
• If a user moves into a cell when all available
channels are in use, the user’s call must be
terminated.
• Problem of signal interference where adjacent
cells overpower each other resulting in receiver
desensitization is also there.
Directed Retry
Directed Retry [9] is the process of assigning a Mobile
Station to a Traffic CHannel in a cell different from the
serving cellCall or traffic in a cell may be offloaded to
nearby cell If a call is chosen for Directed Retry to GSM,
the request for the speech channel will be rejected with
cause "Directed retry" and then a request is made to the
core network to relocate the UE to a specific GSM cell,
using the Inter-RAT handover procedure. This handover is
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 DOI: 10.18535/ijecs/v5i2.5

a blind one since the target cell is chosen not based on UE E

measurements. Therefore, the target cell must be co- F
located with the cell. Co-located GSM cells are assumed C’ D’ BSC
BTS 1

D
to have similar coverage and accessibility as their
respective cells.Criteria can be set based on cell loading A’
B’

A
where threshold say 95% has reached so that nearby
adjacent cell having less utilization may be used to mature
C
a call and improve Network KPI . B

Statistics on call drop Figure 3.Transmisssion topology for cell connectivity

Call Drop Rate (CDR) is defined as the ratio of abnormal The overall end to end availability of BTS 1 is calculated using
disconnect of calls to total calls established. The performance
the formula below;,
of a TSP relating to call drop is assessed through this
parameter. The benchmark set by TRAI for CDR is <2%. [10]
According, to the PMRs submitted by various TSPs it is seen
[(∑ ) (∑ ) (∑ )]
that the TSPs are mostly complying with the benchmark for the
entire service area as a whole.
Since the CDR for the service area as a whole does not reveal
In table 1 we have given each of the chain links that enter and
the extent of number of areas or localities where the CDR is
poor, the Authority is monitoring another parameter called exit the lop topology an availability number. We have then
“Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel applied the above formula to come up with a final
(TCH) drops”. It is defined as, “cells in which the call drop rate improvement factor.
exceeds 3% during cell busy hour, averaged over a month for a
service area.” Table 1: Link availability in reference to Figure 3

The parameter “Worst affected cells having more than 3%

TCH drops” provides a much more localised view of the
network. Complying with this benchmark shall ensure that on
an average not more than 3% of the base transceiver stations
(BTS) on a day are having call drops of more than 3% during
the busy hour, thus improving overall call drop rate.

The formula for calculating the percentage of dropped calls is:

= A /B * 100

where: A = the total number of interrupted calls (dropped

calls)
B = the total number of calls successfully established
(where traffic channel is allotted)
The formula includes the interrupted calls which consist of
failures which cause the dropping of the call once the TCH has
been successfully established, and the successful seizure of
TCH for an originated or terminated call.
It has been seen that sudden loss of signal one of the
prominent causes of dropped calls ,various factors contributing
can be
(a) Transmission link failure
(b) BTS failure due to power , other reasons like
electronics , etc
Various network topology are available [7] like ,Ring ,Star
,Bus for connectivity between nodes . Linear sites are having
less availability and having high probability of getting down.
Methodology
As per NW topology connecting Cell sites in a GSM Network
, sites which are linear or not in a ring are prone to more
outages . Any break in Transmission media may be microwave
or fibre or power outage impacting cell site will result in
DROP of calls running at that moment .
To avoid this situation and improve NW KPI parameters
following is suggested

Referring (a) above leads to analysis of Transmission 1. Identify cells which are linear connected thus having
topology planning of a network , is directly more potential for outage can be termed as WEAK
contributing to cell site availability. CELLS , other cells in ring topology can be termed as
NORMAL CELLS.

Prashant Shrivastava, IJECS Volume 05 Issue 2 February 2016 Page No.15677-15680 Page 15679
 DOI: 10.18535/ijecs/v5i2.5

2. Monitor utilization of WEAK CELL and whenever
utilization crosses 50% D-Retry feature is to be
enabled for channel assignment of new calls so that
TCH of adjacent NORMAL cell can be allotted.
This will require identification of all NORMAL cell as
COLD ( less utilized ) or HOT ( high utilized)
3. BSC will run the algorithm to identify WEAK CELL
loading and enabling D-Retry feature as soon as
threshold is crossed . TCH will be allotted based on
COLD or HOT cell and cell with less loading will be
preferred.
Result: Data analysis shows that with DR enabled in weak cell
leads to forced handoff of call to nearby cell & helps to reduce
call drop % incase of cell failure .This will result in improving
KPI by reducing number of calls dropped by number of calls
which got latched to other cells when utilization exceed 50%
and cell went down
[2] Digital Communication by Edward A. Lee, David
G. Messers Chmitt, Allied Publication Limit.
[3] Wireless Communication & Networking by
William Staling, Pearson Education.
[4] Mobile Cellular Telecommunication by William
C.Y. Lee, Mc-Graw Hills International.
[5] Wireless Digital Communication by Dr. Kamilo
Feher Pearson Education.
[6] Communication system by R. P. Singh Sapre, Tata
Mc-Graw Hills.
[7] Data Communication & Networking by Behrouz A.
Forouzan, Tata Mc-Graw Hills.
[8] Digital Communication by Bernard Sktar, Pearson
Education.
[9] SIEMENS Paper on Directed Retry
[10] TRAI Report

Table 2: Sample data (assumption) for calls

Figure 4. Graphical form in reference to Table 2

Conclusion : Generally a GSM operator has 80% NW

protected and on an average 5000 cell sites in a telecom circle
.Cumulative impact of 1000 sites having weak transmission
connectivity is high on call drops however same gets averaged
out . After implementing this method significant increase in
KPI, Capex saving can be done as sites will not to be
converted into RING closures which require costly electronics.

REFERENCES
[1] Wideband & Wireless Digital Communication, by
Andreas F. Molisch, Pearson Education.

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